Over the past several months it became acutely necessary for me to get a couple of new fly rods (my old ones broke and I had them so long they could not be repaired). After looking around a bit I decided to go with the Orvis Recon series. They are pretty affordable for new fly rods and look nice too. It’s when you fish one you find out. It just gets the job done. I find them to be light enough to cast streamers over and over but beefy enough to get a popper “Over There”.

I’m able to use my six weight for saltwater in speckled trout and slot sized redfish as well as bugging for largemouth bass. The eight weight handles the bigger flies I use for redfish in the wind and I’ve even caught under 10 lb false albacore with it. These are the rods I use most of the time and I am very pleased with them. I didn’t have to hold off on groceries that week I bought them either!

It might seem repetitive, but any time a style of fishing is as good as this has been lately, you tend to want to keep doing it. I hit the dock lights with my buddy Griffee @griffee11 . We pulled up and the fish were popping in the lights. It sounds like champagne corks being pulled. My first cast was with a size 4 Crease Fly. One grabbed it immediately. Redfish.

My next cast was an instant replay, except this guy had striped pajamas:

A couple more and this speckled trout decided he wanted his chance:

It slowed down after this and when the bite quit we went to another spot. That was a good idea because this Momma was there:

Pictures aren’t great but that’s close to five pounds. Got her on a size 4 Lazer Minnow with a Flymen Fishing Co Fish Mask. My new Orvis Recon is a great rod and I was able to make the long casts I needed to in the dark with no problems.

We wrapped it up when the tide changed. Got to bed pretty late. It was worth it.